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Video: Rebels fight – and die – for Brega oil facility

Closed captioning of: Rebels fight – and die – for Brega oil facility

>>>moammar gadhafi
continues his assault in the eastern part of the country, the territory he used to control. it's now in the hands of the rebels. he wants it back. again today
gadhafi
's forces turned their fire on the town of
brega
. it's in the oil region and home to
libya
's second largest oil facility. nbc's stephanie gosk traveled there
today tonight
. she's back in nearby benghazi. good evening.

>> reporter: you hit on it. the fight right now is all about the oil. the opposition says they control 80% of
libya
's
oil resources
and that they are going to use the money they earn from it to fund their cause.
gadhafi
is showing that he is determined not to let that happen.
fighter jets
bombed the rebels in the east again today. causing more fear than damage, but reminding people here how vulnerable they are. the opposition forces guarding
brega
's
oil terminal
have no doubt
gadhafi
's ground troops will also attack again soon. the battle for
brega
started wednesday morning. a fierce gunfight broke out in the
sand dunes
overlooking the mediterranean. by day's end,
gadhafi
's fighters retreated, leaving 14 rebels dead and many more wounded. ahmed was there. when did you learn to shoot your gun? the faster of three with a master's degree in engineering proudly showed me his kalishnikov. but you're ready to fight?

>>i'm ready to die.

>>you're ready to die.

>>yes, for my country. and for my people and for my kids.

>> reporter: the fighters guarding
brega
gave us a rare firsthand look inside the massive oil facility here. first stop, a
guest house
riddled with
machine gun
fire. the
oil industry
relies on foreign expertise in
libya
. in this guesthouse in
brega
there were americans and british oil workers here during the attack. the rebels say they don't know what happened to them. the rest of the oil facility is completely shut down. the port, the tanks an the refinery. the opposition says they are resuming production of oil but production is just half the battle. they also have to export it. this is one of the most important port in
libya
and it's standing here virtually empty. hasn't exported oil in weeks.
gadhafi
says
libya
's oil facilities are safe and secure. but in
brega
, the battle is far from over. even as the dead are mourned, many more fighters are rushing in to take their place. the opposition has rejected an offer to negotiate. leaders here in benghazi say what's the point in negotiating until
gadhafi
steps down.

Security personnel stand guard as Libyan Leader Moammar Gadhafi is seen on a television screen, as he speaks in Tripoli, on Wednesday. Gadhafi vowed "We will fight until the last man and woman" and lashed out against Europe and the United States for their pressure on him to step down, warning that thousands of Libyans will die if U.S. and NATO forces intervene in the conflict.

TRIPOLI, Libya — The mourning tent was set up in Tripoli's Fashloum neighborhood Thursday to receive grieving friends and neighbors of a 56-year-old man shot to death by Moammar Gadhafi's militiamen a week ago. No one dared show up. Paying condolences to a slain protester is dangerous in the Libyan capital.

A wave of arrests, killings and disappearances has terrorized Tripoli in a deadly crackdown by Gadhafi's regime as his opponents try to organize new protests Friday.

Bodies of people who vanished have been dumped in the street. Gunmen in SUVs have descended on homes in the night to drag away suspected protesters, identified by video footage of protests that militiamen have pored through to spot faces. Other militiamen have searched hospitals for wounded to take away.

Even so, in Tripoli's main market, there was a feeling Thursday that the conflict was very far way, according to a report by NBC News Richard Engel. "People are out, shops are open, and at least on the surface the city appears to be thriving," he said.

Engel reported that some residents have been told by Gadhafi that the United States wants to invade and make Libya into another Iraq. "They seem to believe it," he said.

Still, residents say they are under the watchful eyes of a variety of Gadhafi militias prowling the streets. They go under numerous names — Internal Security, the Central Support Force, the People's Force, the People's Guards and the Brigade of Mohammed al-Magarif, the head of Gadhafi's personal guard — and they are all searching for suspected protesters.

"While you are speaking to me now, there are spies everywhere and people watching me and you," one man said, cutting short a conversation with an Associated Press reporter visiting the Tripoli district of Zawiyat al-Dahman on Thursday.

Residents said calls for new protests to be held Friday after weekly Muslim prayers were being passed by word of mouth in several districts of the capital.

Whether crowds turn out will depend on the depth of fear among Gadhafi opponents. Friday could prove a test of the extent of Gadhafi's control. The capital is crucial to the Libyan leader, his strongest remaining bastion after the uprising that began on Feb. 15 broke the entire eastern half of Libya out of his control and even swept over some cities in the west near Tripoli.

The clampdown in Tripoli has left some yearning for outside help. One 21-year-old in Zawiyat al-Dahman said residents were hoping for manpower to come from the opposition-held east. A Libyan writer in his 70s said he rejects "foreign intervention" in Libya's upheaval — but wouldn't mind a "a powerful strike" on Gadhafi's headquarters to stop further bloodshed.

"There must be some sort of action as soon as possible. Time is running and Libyans can't wait any longer," the writer said.

He, like other residents, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear they too would be hunted down.

Last Friday, the residents of Fashloum, Tajoura and Souq al-Jomaa witnessed the price anti-Gadhafi protesters pay, when militiamen opened fire on demonstrators.

In Fashloum, worshippers emerged from the Al-Baz mosque and young men in the crowd began to march and chant, "Freedom to Libya." Within moments, the barrage of gunfire from militiamen erupted, said a brother of the slain 56-year-old protester.

"My brother was hit with a bullet right in the heart. In minutes he lost all his blood," he said, showing a mobile phone video clip of his brother's body, with a hole in the chest.

While rushing to Tripoli's central hospital, he found militia stationed in front of the building.

"Doctors at the hospital told me that they are taking the injured to underground rooms inside the hospital away from the militia," said the brother, who is a doctor himself.

"During the burial, the militia was also there watching us," he added.

The number of deaths across Tripoli last Friday is not confirmed. The brother gave the names of six people from Fashloum who were killed. He said other bodies of slain protesters that day were seen being loaded into cars by militiamen and have not been seen since. He said he knows families who are still searching for bodies of their loved ones.

Others were arrested later on. The brother said he knows a 37-year-old man who disappeared for several days afterward. Then his body was dumped in a street in Tripoli's Abu Selim district.

In nearby Zawiyat al-Dahman, a similar protest came last Friday came under a shower of bullets. One man on Thursday pointed to a building where he said a young woman was shot dead while standing on her balcony.

"All people hate Gadhafi. This is a fact. But if anyone steps out, he is dead," he said.

"What I know for sure is that it is getting worse. What we are in right now is worse than what we had before. I don't know what will the future look like," he said. "The price people pay for change is very dear."

In the embattled neighborhood of Tajoura, a 31-year old protester showed the AP the houses of his two brothers, who were rounded up in a 3 a.m. raid on Wednesday.

He was on the roof of a nearby building, counting the militia vehicles: 15 white pickup trucks with People's Guards license plates and two 4x4 Toyotas screeched up to the adjacent houses in a narrow, unpaved alley. They cordoned off the buildings, militiamen leaped over the buildings' fences, froze the door locks off with a compressed substance in cans and broke in. They drove off with his 32- and 35-year-old brothers, whose whereabouts remains unknown, the protester said.

They were among 20 protesters rounded up in Tajoura at that same time, according to various residents.

In the home of one of the arrested men, clothes were left scattered around the living room, drawers were open and the TV was still on. The door was intact, but its lock was knocked out. In the bedroom, the mattress was overturned. The protester said money, jewelry and four mobile phones were also taken. Other young men from the family had already been arrested days earlier, he said.

Except for the barking dogs, the house was empty and still.

"We moved their families away from here. There is no way they can stay after what happened," he said, adding that he and his fellow activists had also decided not to spend the night in their homes.

"This is the message to all Libyans: if you say you don't want Gadhafi, this is what will happen to you," he said.

People gathering in Benghazi, Libya in mid-February of 2011 as protest against the rule of Moammar Gadhafi grew, in part triggered by the arrest of human rights activist Fethi Tarbel.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The content, date and location of this image could not be independently verified.
(AP)
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Buildings at the entrance to a security forces compound burn in Benghazi, Feb. 21, 2011. Libyan protesters celebrated in the streets of Benghazi, claiming control of the country's second largest city after bloody fighting, and anti-government unrest spread to the capital with clashes in Tripoli's main square for the first time.
(Alaguri / AP)
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Libyan U.N. ambassador Shalgham is embraced by Dabbashi, Libya's deputy U.N. Ambassador after denouncing Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi for the first time during a Security Council meeting at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York on Feb. 25. Shalgam, a longtime friend and member of Gadhafi's inner circle, had previously refused to denounce Gadhafi.
(Reuters)
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Thousands of Libyans gather for the Muslim Friday prayers outside the courthouse in the eastern city of Benghazi on Feb. 25, 2011. Perhaps 8,000 people gathered for the midday prayers with a local imam, who delivered his sermon alongside the coffins of three men killed in the violent uprising that routed Gadhafi loyalists from Benghazi.
(Gianluigi Guercia / AFP - Getty Images)
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Rebels hold a young man at gunpoint, who they accuse of being a loyalist to Gadhafi, between the towns of Brega and Ras Lanuf, March 3, 2011.
(Goran Tomasevic / Reuters)
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Pro-Gadhafi soldiers and supporters gather in Green Square in Tripoli, March 6, 2011. Thousands of Moammar Gadhafi's supporters poured into the streets of Tripoli, waving flags and firing their guns in the air in the Libyan leader's main stronghold, claiming overnight military successes.
(Ben Curtis / AP)
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Rebel fighters jump away from shrapnel during heavy shelling by forces loyal to Gadhafi near Bin Jawad, March 6. Rebels in east Libya regrouped and advanced on Bin Jawad after Gadhafi forces ambushed rebel fighters and ejected them from the town earlier in the day.
(Goran Tomasevic / Reuters)
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Libyan rebel fighters take cover as a bomb dropped by an airforce fighter jet explodes near a checkpoint on the outskirts of the oil town of Ras Lanuf on March 7, 2011.
(Marco Longari / AFP - Getty Images)
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Libyan government soldiers aboard tanks at the west gate of the town Ajdabiyah March 16, 2011. Libya's army pounded an opposition-held city in the country's west and battled fighters trying to block its advance on a rebel bastion in the east amid flagging diplomatic efforts to end the bloodshed.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Picture taken on a government guided tour.
(Ahmed Jadallah / Reuters)
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Libyan people in Benghazi celebrate after the United Nations Security Council authorized a no-fly zone over Libya, March 18. Thousands of Libyans erupted in cheers as the news flashed on a giant screen in besieged Benghazi late March 17. After weeks of discussion, the UN Security Council banned flights in Libya's airspace and authorized "all necessary means" to implement the ban, triggering intervention by individual countries and organizations like NATO.
(EPA)
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A picture combo shows a Libyan jet bomber crashing after being apparently shot down in Benghazi on March 19, 2011 as the Libyan rebel stronghold came under attack. Air strikes and sustained shelling of the city's south sent thick smoke into the sky.
(Patrick Baz / AFP - Getty Images)
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Residents of Benghazi flee the city along the road toward Tobruk, in an attempt to escape fighting in their city, March 19, 2011. Gaddafi's troops pushed into the outskirts of Benghazi, a city of 670,000 people, in an apparent attempt to pre-empt Western military intervention expected after a meeting of Western and Arab leaders in Paris.
(Reuters TV)
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Vehicles belonging to forces loyal to Gadhafi explode after an air strike by coalition forces, along a road between Benghazi and Ajdabiyah March 20, 2011.
(Goran Tomasevic / Reuters)
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A rebel fighter carries his weapon outside the northeastern Libyan town of Ajdabiyah, March 21, 2011. A wave of air strikes hit Gaddafi's troops around Ajdabiyah, a strategic town in the barren, scrub of eastern Libya that rebels aim to retake and where their fighters said they need more help.
(Finbarr O'reilly / Reuters)
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A Libyan rebel prays next to his gun on the frontline of the outskirts of the city of Ajdabiya, south of Benghazi, March 21, 2011. The international military intervention in Libya is likely to last "a while," a top French official said, echoing Moammar Gadhafi's warning of a long war ahead as rebels, energized by the strikes on their opponents.
(Anja Niedringhaus / AP)
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Libyan rebels retreat as mortars from Gadhafi's forces are fired on them near the outskirts of the city of Ajdabiya, March 22, 2011. Coalition forces bombarded Libya for a third straight night, targeting the air defenses and forces of Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi, stopping his advances and handing some momentum back to the rebels, who were on the verge of defeat.
(Anja Niedringhaus / AP)
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A Libyan man is comforted by hospital staff as he reacts after identifying his killed brother in the morgue of the Jalaa hospital in Benghazi, March 22, 2011. His brother was killed earlier in fighting around the city of Ajdabiya.
(Anja Niedringhaus / AP)
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Volunteer fighters training at a rebel army training camp in Benghazi, March 29, 2011. Pro-government forces intensified their attacks on Libyan rebels, driving them back over ground they had taken in recent days. The rebels had reached Nawfaliya, but pulled back to Bin Jawad.
(Manu Brabo / EPA)
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Smoke billows as seven explosions were reported in the tightly-guarded residence of leader Moammar Gadhafi and military targets in the suburb of Tajura. Two explosions also rocked the Libyan capital Tripoli on March 29, 2011, as NATO-led coalition aircraft had been seen in the skies over the capital.
(Mahmud Turkia / AFP - Getty Images)
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A Libyan rebel urges people to leave, as shelling from Gadhafi's forces started landing on the frontline outside of Bin Jawaad, 93 miles east of Sirte, March 29, 2011.
(Anja Niedringhaus / AP)
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General Abdel-Fattah Younis, former interior minister in the Gadhafi regime who defected in the early days of the uprising, is greeted by Libyan rebels at the front line near Brega, April 1, 2011.
(Altaf Qadri / AP)
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Libyan men show the V-sign for victory as they stand on the deck of a Turkish ship arriving from Misrata to the port of Benghazi who were evacuated along with others the injured in the fighting between rebel and Gadhafi forces, April 03, 2011. The Turkish vessel took hundreds of people wounded in the Libyan uprising for treatment in Turkey from the two cities of Misrata and Benghazi.
(Mahmud Hams / AFP - Getty Images)
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A wounded prisoner from Gadhafi's forces is transported in the back of a pickup truck by rebels, on the way to a hospital for treatment, half way between Brega and Ajdabiya, April 9, 2011. Rebels say they took two prisoners after a clash with soldiers near Brega's university outside the government-controlled oil facilities, marking a noticeable advance by rebels.
(Ben Curtis / AP)
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In this image taken from TV, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi makes a pubic appearance in Tripoli, April 14 2011. Gadhafi defiantly waved at his supporters while being driven around Tripoli while standing up through the sunroof of a car.
(AP)
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A rebel fighter celebrates as his comrades fire a rocket barrage toward the positions of government troops April 14, 2011, west of Ajdabiyah.
(Chris Hondros / Getty Images)
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Gadhafi supporters hold copies of his portrait as they gather at the Bab Al Azizia compound in Tripoli, April 15, 2011. Rebels held much of eastern Libya by mid-April, while Gadhafi controlled the west, with the front line shifting back and forth in the middle.
(Pier Paolo Cito / AP)
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Doctors work on a baby who suffered cuts from shrapnel that blasted through the window of his home during fighting in the besieged city of Misrata, April 18, 2011. Thousands of civilians are trapped in Misrata as fighting continues between Libyan government forces that have surrounded the city and anti-government rebels there. The Libyan government has come under international criticism for using heavy weapons and artillery in its assault on Misrata.
(Chris Hondros / Getty Images)
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MISRATA, LIBYA - APRIL 20: Libyan rebel fighters discuss how to dislodge some ensconced government loyalist troops who were firing on them from the next room during house-to-house fighting on Tripoli Street in downtown Misrata April 20, 2011 in Misrata, Libya. Rebel forces assaulted the downtown positions of troops loyal to Libyan strongman Moammar Gaddafi April 20, briefly forcing them back over a key bridge and trapping several in a building that fought back instead of surrendering, firing on the rebels in the building and seriously wounding two of them during the standoff. Fighting continues between Libyan government forces that have surrounded the city and anti-government rebels ensconced there. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images)
(Chris Hondros / Getty Images)
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Libyan rebel fighters carry out a comrade wounded during an effort to dislodge some ensconced government loyalist troops who were firing on them from a building during house-to-house fighting on Tripoli Street in downtown Misrata April 20, 2011. Rebel forces assaulted the downtown positions of troops loyal to Gaddafi, briefly forcing them back over a key bridge and trapping several in a building where they fought back instead of surrendering. Two rebels were seriously wounded during the standoff.
(Chris Hondros / Getty Images)
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Rebels tread carefully as they prepare to invade a house where soldiers from the pro-government forces had their base in the Zwabi area of Misrata on April 24, 2011.
(Andre Liohn / EPA)
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Libyans inspect damage and an unexploded missile at the Gadhafi family compound in a residential area of Tripoli, May 1, 2011. Gadhafi escaped a NATO missile strike in Tripoli that killed one of his sons and three young grandchildren.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Photo taken on a government guided tour.
(Darko Bandic / AP)
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Moammar Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, center, leaves the funeral of his brother Saif Al-Arab Gadhafi, who was killed during air strikes by coalition forces, at the El Hani cemetery in Tripoli, May 2, 2011. Crowds chanting Gadhafi's name gathered in Tripoli for the funeral of his son and three grandchildren.
(Louafi Larbi / Reuters)
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Fleeing migrants and Libyans are seen on board an International Organization of Migration ship leaving the port of Misrata on May 4, 2011, as Gadhafi forces continued to pound the city.
(Christophe Simon / AFP - Getty Images)
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Libyan men watch as the main fuel depot in Libya's third largest city, Misrata, burns following a bombing by Gadhafi's forces on May 7, 2011. Libyan regime forces shelled fuel depots in Misrata and dropped mines into its harbor using helicopters bearing the Red Cross emblem, rebels said as they braced for a ground assault.
(Ricardo Garcia Vilanova / AFP - Getty Images)
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Libyan rebels celebrate near the airport of Misrata on May 11, 2011 after capturing the city's strategic airport following a fierce battle with Moammar Gadhafi's troops -- their first significant advance in weeks.
(Ricardo Garcia Vilanova / AFP - Getty Images)
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Women react after a protest against Moammar Gadhafi's regime in Benghazi, Libya, on May 16, 2011. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, announced that he would seek arrest warrants against the leader of Libya, Moammar Gadhafi, his son Seif al-Islam and the country's intelligence chief on charges of crimes against humanity.
(Rodrigo Abd / AP)
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Tripoli street in Misrata is seen from the terrace of a building used by Gadhafi’s snipers before the rebels took control of the area on May 22, 2011. The weeks-long siege of the city ended in mid-May and Tripoli Street was the site of the fiercest fighting in the battle and a turnin point in the war.
(Rodrigo Abd / AP)
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A rebel fighter gives water to a soldier loyal to Gadhafi after he was wounded and then captured near the front line, west of Misrata on May 23, 2011.
(Rodrigo Abd / AP)
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An uncle, left, prays over the body of one and a half year-old Mohsen Ali al-Sheikh during a washing ritual during the funeral at his family's house in Misrata, May 27, 2011. The child was killed by a gunshot during clashes between rebels and pro-Gadhafi forces earlier in the day.
(Wissam Saleh / AP)
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The body of a drowned refugee floats near a capsized ship which was transporting an estimated 850 refugees from Libya, approximately 22 miles north of the Tunisian islands of Kerkennah, June 4, 2011. At least 578 survived the sinking.
(Lindsay Mackenzie / AP)
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A photograph taken from a video by a National Transitional Council (NTC) fighter shows Mutassem Gadhafi, son of Moammar Gadhafi, drinking water and smoking a cigarette following his capture and shortly before his death, in Sirte, Oct. 20, 2011.
(- / AFP - Getty Images)
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A photograph taken from mobile phone video of a National Transitional Council (NTC) fighter shows the capture of Moammar Gadhafi in Sirte on Oct. 20, 2011.
(AFP - Getty Images)
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This image provided by the Libyan Youth Group on Nov. 19, 2011, shows Seif al-Islam Gadhafi after he was captured near the Niger border with Libya. Moammar Gadhafi's son, the only wanted member of the ousted ruling family to remain at large, was captured as he traveled with aides in a convoy in Libya's southern desert.
(AP)
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